Knight, Sloan Award $3.4 Million to Digital Public Library of America

June 30, 2015

The has announced grants totaling $3.4 million from the and the to connect online collections from coast to coast.

A $1.9 million grant from the Sloan Foundation will enable DPLA to open new — state or regional digital collaboratives that host, aggregate, or otherwise bring together the digital collections of cultural heritage organizations — in eight states and further explore how the organization might expand access to e-books, while a $1.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation will facilitate the expansion of DPLA's hub network in eight additional states. DPLA currently operates Service Hubs in more than twenty states and aims to extend its coverage to all fifty states over the next two years. Launched in 2013, the organization currently provides free public access to more than ten million items from sixteen hundred libraries, archives, and museums.

"The Sloan and Knight foundations have been such generous contributors to DPLA's success, from our planning phase to the rapid build-out of our national network," said DPLA executive director Dan Cohen. "With these major grants, we will be able to bring online sixteen new states and approach completion of that network."

"An informed and engaged public is a prerequisite of American democracy," said Jorge Martinez, vice president and chief technology officer at the Knight Foundation. "Libraries — be they physical or digital — play a fundamental role in encouraging people to know more about and become involved in the places where they live. DPLA brings to life the unique items locked away in our nation's libraries and archives while providing an invaluable opportunity to bring this information into people's lives and homes — better connecting them to each other and their communities."